The present invention relates to an incontinence article in pant form.
The following discussion of related art is provided to assist the reader in understanding the advantages of the invention, and is not to be construed as an admission that this related art is prior art to this invention.
Incontinence articles in pant form principally differ from openable and closable incontinence articles in conventional diaper form, in that the waist circumference is already predetermined by the pant form, and the adjustment to different body sizes based on a number of basic sizes is achieved in that the article can be elastically stretched. For this, elastifying means, in particular in the form of bands or threads, often also referred to as Lycra—bands are usually connected to chassis materials of the incontinence article in a pre-tensioned state (Stretch-Bond-Method) i.e., they are fixed in a pre-tensioned state on the chassis materials for example by means of glue. Due to their pre-tension, these elastifying means bundle chassis materials together, thereby forming plications, which typically extend transverse to the direction in which the elastifying means are pre-tensioned, i.e. in this case in longitudinal direction of the article. The incontinence article or the elastified chassis materials of the incontinence article can then be elastically stretched again when the user puts on the incontinence article like a pant. The chassis materials themselves on the other hand are preferably non-elastic and can thus be guided in a well defined manner in the transport plane in a flat or evenly spread out state so that the elastifying means can then be attached with a defined pre-tension.
In known incontinence articles of the type discussed here, there is a tendency to configure the stomach section and the back section and with this the stomach- or back band which is formed by them and is continuous in waist-circumferential direction relatively expansive, so that the waistband or waist border comes to lie relatively high on the user. This has the purpose to create a relatively great body-contacting surface of the stomach- and back band, which is two-dimensionally elastified over its extent, which surface alone determines and maintains the fit of the incontinence article on the body of the user. The greater the body-contacting and elastified surface of the stomach section and back section, the greater are the forces which hold the incontinence article on the body. After all, it has to be insured that the incontinence article does not slide down when used in the customary, intended manner.
At the starting point of the present invention, it was recognized that a broad stomach- and back band i.e., a high positioned waist border or waistband is associated with the problem that the border region of the waistband of the incontinence article folds outwardly, especially in the case of mobile users and in a very pronounced manner in users with a paunch. In this case, folding over or rolling over by several centimeters can occur in longitudinal direction, resulting in a significant reduction of the body-contacting surface, whereupon the secure fit of the incontinence article is no longer ensured. In addition, this leads to a strong local increase of pinching forces acting in circumferential direction, because multiple elastifying means come to lie in a manner of speaking on one waist-circumferential line.
This leads to an unpleasant wearing experience, potentially involving severe skin irritations, but not to an improved fit of the hygiene article.
Significantly reducing the width or longitudinal extent of the stomach- and back band does also not lead to a satisfactory wearing situation, even though the problem of outward folding of the waist border can be reduced. However, pinching forces still occur and the elastification of the stomach- and back band cannot be solved satisfactorily.
It would therefore be desirable and advantageous to provide an incontinence article with an improved fit, and with this improved wearing comfort in an economically acceptable manner.